Now Jessie Parker has a new challenge: making sure her own voice is heard, ideally in the halls of power.

Ms Parker runs the iconic St Jerome's Laneway Festival, which, like many other major events, remains in limbo as the nation continues to grapple with social-distancing restrictions.

She's hopeful the Australian shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth can still go ahead in some capacity, but says that relies on more help from the Federal Government.

"Until we can have an assurance that we will be able to operate with an appropriate lead time, we're in a holding pattern," she said.

The live music and events industry has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic and Australia's subsequent recession.

Recreating the euphoria of belting out your favourite song with your arms around your best mates is a faraway dream in a socially-distanced world.

Laneway's organisers have already scrapped a lone show in Auckland, after a brief resurgence of the virus in New Zealand sparked major changes to social-distancing restrictions.

"We saw just how a small number of cases meant everything going back into lockdown overnight, we couldn't risk it financially if the event got cancelled a week out," Ms Parker said.

"There was a small sense of relief because we finally had some certainty around something for once, which we've not had at all since we first got locked down in March."

In June, the Federal Government announced a $250 million Creative Economy Support Package.

It also set up a $75 million Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) fund, which allows festival organisers to apply for up to $2 million to assist in putting on a new or reshaped event.

In the United Kingdom, some festivals have tried to create COVID-safe environments by selling separated dancing "pig pens" to groups of people, while others have put performances online.

Ms Parker said there was no shortage of creative ideas about how to hold events this summer, and while she is grateful for the Government's financial support, she said festivals needed more certainty.

"We are not in anyway short of ideas on how to get things running, we're happy to diversify but if it comes at such a high risk financially if we get cancelled then it's a very difficult situation to invest in," she said.

"We'd like to open up a conversation with the government about underwriting our festivals to some degree because that's the kind of funding model where you'd see instant tangible results.

"That is what will allow us to go back to business."

Singer and guitarist Hayley Mary {Below) has been playing intimate shows in Sydney since her Australian tour was cancelled in March.

But she has to play 14 COVID-safe performances to sell the same number of tickets she would have before the pandemic.

"Live music is really the only product musicians have to sell these days in the age of streaming," Mary said.

"So it really is our bread and butter being taken away."

Technical production company DPLR supplies music gear to many of Australia's biggest events, and co-owner Liz Astey said the industry felt forgotten.

The business has retained just 5 per cent of its clients since the start of the pandemic.

"It's easy for us to fall through the cracks because we're supposed to not be remembered, if you're seeing us something's gone wrong to be honest," she said.

"So, it's hard to see us when we've been not seen for so long."

Ms Astey said the business was surviving on JobKeeper payments, and by live-streaming events like funerals and theatre productions.

The JobKeeper wage subsidy was yesterday lowered from $1,500 to $1,200 a fortnight.

"I think it's scary for it to go down knowing that the pandemic is still going and there's no job security for those workers in an industry that's been decimated," she said.

A survey by advocacy group Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC) found only 17 per cent of members expected to benefit from the RISE package.

About 70 per cent of the 600 businesses that took part warned they could close within the next six months based on cashflow projections and current government support measures.

Ms Parker is worried many of her contractors may not exist if Laneway goes ahead this summer.

"Before you've even walked inside you've engaged or observed with about 10 small businesses or independent contractors — the fencing company, security, the ticketing, the waste company with providing the bins," she said.

"A lot of them didn't qualify for JobKeeper."

Below | Hayley Mary, who fronts The Jezabels, was about to embark on a solo tour when the pandemic struck.